


the one with all the gays.

by thelayuplesbian



Category: Friends (TV)
Genre: 90’s still, Bisexual Joey Tribbiani, Bisexual Monica Geller, F/F, F/M, Fuck Ross, Gay Chandler Bing, Implied Sexual Content, Lesbian Rachel Green, M/M, OR IS IT, Pansexual Phoebe Buffay, Pining, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-03 00:49:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16315949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelayuplesbian/pseuds/thelayuplesbian
Summary: Where has she always felt safe and happy? Monica.





	the one with all the gays.

**Author's Note:**

> i got it into my head that chandler and joey would b cute and that mon and rachel would b too and this was born ur welcome and i’m sorry except lmao no i’m not bitch

_Oh my God. Oh my God. What am I doing? I’m running out on my own wedding! Where do I go?_

Then it hits her, where has she always felt safe and happy? Monica. Last she heard Mon was living in the city, she calls Mrs. Geller and gets the adress and a coffee shop she might be able to find Mon at. Her dress is ruined, mud and cried off makeup on it and she glares down at it on the cab ride to some place called Central Perk. Luckily she wasn’t dumb enough to leave without money so she pays the cab driver and runs into the coffee shop, Mons mom told her to check there first. Everyone is talking in the cafe and she doesn’t see Monica, she starts to panic and then, “Rachel?” It’s Monica, standing up, gorgeous as ever and go away gay thoughts now is not the time. 

“Mon!” She breathes and hugs Monica. Rachel explains everything, almost everything to her and her friends and brother that keeps looking at her very weird. She thinks he had a crush on her in highschool and mentally gags. The only part she leaves out is that she didn’t love Barry because she’s a lesbian, no one really knows that except her and the girl she had sex with in college probably has a good idea. “Rach you must be freezing! Come on I’ll let you borrow some of my clothes.” Monica offers and leads them to her apartment, the gang in tow. She ends up in a denim shirt and some black jeans of Monica’s and knows she has to call her father but that can wait. The dress ends up shoved in the guest room closet and her ring in the nightstand, she wishes this was all a bad dream. “Daddy I’m sorry okay? I just don’t love him and I can’t marry someone I don’t love!” Her fathers starts yelling on the other end so she just hangs up and collapses onto the couch, grabbing a pillow and screaming into it. 

Everyone ends up leaving Monica’s apartment except her, they all have plans so she finds herself watching TV laying on the couch. Some stupid comedy is on and Rachel isn’t really paying attention to it and lets herself drift off. She wakes up a few hours later to someone gently shaking her and saying her name. Her eyes flutter open and find Monica, she smiles sleepily. “Let’s get you into an actual bed okay?” Monica whispers and Rachel nods and sits up, rubbing her eyes. When she’s laying down, all the lights off and the door closed she lets herself remember highschool. In seventh grade Rachel realized she liked girls, in ninth she was given a word for it and in turn learned that being a lesbian was sinful. In tenth she fell for her best friend, in tenth she shoved it all down and lost her virginity to some football player. In eleventh she started thinking about the future, she’d marry some boring guy from a jewish family in long island and live her days out miserable. In twelfth her and Monica got drunk for the first time, Monica kissed her and they never talked about it. In twelfth she started imagining how she wanted her life to turn out, living her days with Monica, raising a family, being happy. She accepted that as nothing more than fantasy. 

. . . . .

Two weeks later Rachel has a job, has returned the ring to Barry and moved in officially with Monica. She’s a waitress at Central Perk, it pays the bills. Sometimes she’ll catch herself just looking at Monica, admiring and she realizes that she’s had it bad for her all this time. Her and Joey become quick friends, she likes all of them except for Ross. It isn’t that he’s a bad person to anything like that as far as she knows it’s just the fact that she can feel he likes her and she’s oh so tired of pretending to like guys. This is what floats through her mind as she’s cleaning the coffee shop before she closes up for the day. Joey wanted them all to meet at Monica’s around eight so she still has a good thirty minutes and is just finishing cleaning the coffee pots. She’s never done this before, this whole job thing but she’s surprisingly pretty good at it. 

“What’s up Joe?” Chandler asks as he plops down on the couch next to Rachel, who has her feet kicked up and still in her work uniform. “Okay so I uh- I’ve wanted to tell you guys this for a while and I hope you don’t love me any less for it because I’d really hate to lose any of you,” He makes eye contact with Chandler when he says this and Rachel makes note of that. “I wanted to tell you that I’m bisexual.” Joey says confidently and the room goes silent for a sickening moment. “That’s great Joe.” Chandler whispers and gets up to hug him, Monica, Phoebe and Rachel following. Ross sits on the couch gaping. “What?” Ross whispers harshly and Rachel flinches for Joey and squeezes his hand reassuringly. “I like men and women, Ross.” Joey says steadily and Chandler looks like he’s ready to deck Ross. “Okay cool. I’m glad you told us.” Ross says and joins the hug but it feels reluctant. “We’re so proud of Joey, we love you no matter what.” Chandler says and Rachel makes note of that too, her first impression of Joey just proved right and she wonders if the one of Chandler will too. She hasn’t known them that long but she can already tell they’re perfect for eachother. 

“Hey Joey can I talk to you?” Rachel asks nervously the next morning and pulls Joey aside in the hall. “Yeah sure, I don’t think Chandlers home you want to talk in here?” Joey asks motioning to his apartment door and she nods. Rachel sits on the barstool and is nervous, she’s sure it’s obvious. “Okay so here’s the thing,” She starts. “I’m a lesbian and I haven’t told anyone, like anyone at all and I’m telling you because you’re bi and my friend and I need someone to know so bad.” Rachel rushes out and Joey smiles and hugs her. “That’s great Rach.” He tells her and she relaxes and hugs him back. “Thanks Joey, could you somehow get Ross to like back off please?” She asks and Joey chuckles and pulls away. “I’ll get Chandler too yeah, things have been a little tense around Ross since yesterday.” They talk a little while before Rachel has to get to work, they share how they realized they liked the same gender and the fears of telling their families. “Damn, I gotta get to work. I’ll see you later Joey, thanks again.” Rachel says looking at her watch and Joey pulls her into a hug before she leaves. “I’m proud of you Rach.” 

Later that day, when Chandler is on his lunch break Rachel watches him and Joey in the coffee shop. “Why were you scared to tell me?” Chandler asks and Joey takes a breath. “Because you talk about your dad being gay and doing drag like it repulses you. I thought you’d hate me and I’d lose my bestfriend.” Joey tells him and Rachel notices their sitting pretty close together on the couch and smiles at Joey when he looks to her, for reassurance she supposes. “Joey, I could never ever hate you. My dad being gay or doing drag doesn’t piss me off, just that it ruined my family ya know. You being bi is perfectly okay and I’m proud of you for telling us.” Chandler tells him sweetly and hugs him, Joey deflates Rachel can tell. There’s something there, she can’t be imagining this. She’ll talk to Joey about it later and focuses on her work, bringing the boys their coffees. 

“I think I want to tell my parents.” Rachel says that evening after work when her and Joey are at some chinese place eating dinner. “Honestly me too.” He replies easily and takes a bite of his orange chicken. “I wanna get out there ya know. Have a girlfriend, or just like go on dates with girls.” Rachel says through bites of her noodles and Joey gets so excited he nearly chokes. “I know a lesbian couple that you should be friends with. Ross’s ex wife Carol and her partner Susan, they’re honestly so sweet.” Joey tells her after he swallows her food and she nods. “I think that’d be great, also when I go to come out will you come with me?” Rachel asks and Joey squeezes her hand affectionately. “Only if you’ll come with me.” She agrees and the next day they make plans with each of their parents for different days next week. “So you and Joey are becoming good friends, there something going on there?” Monica asks her the next night at dinner and Rachel chuckles. “No, he’s just turning out to be a really nice friend to have.” Rachel replies nonchalantly but she swears there was a tinge of jealousy in Monica’s tone.

. . . . .

Its Wednesday, the night she’s going to come out to her parents and she’s pacing around the apartment. Joey comes in the door and she doesn’t notice, biting her nail and worrying. “Rach it’s gonna be okay. Even if they don’t accept you, you won’t be hiding anymore and I promise that’s gonna feel so great.” Joey tells her rubbing her arms and she takes a shaky breath and nods. “Okay let’s go.” She says and hugs Joey before grabbing her purse and heading downstairs to catch a cab. 

“Mom, Dad this is my friend Joey.” Joey and her friends greet eachother and they all sit down at the table. “What’s going on sweetie?” Her mom asks as they sit down and Joey gives her what he hopes is a reassuring smile. “You know that I didn’t marry Barry because I didn’t love him, but I- uh-“ She clears her throat and looks at her palms before looking to her parents. “I didn’t love him because I don’t like men.” Her fathers mouth falls open and her mom just smiles and gets up, she pulls her into a hug. “As long as you’re happy, I’ll be happy. You’re my daughter and nothing you ever do will change the fact that I love you.” Her mom says and cups her cheeks, wiping tears away when they roll down her cheeks. Rachel buries her face in her Mom’s stomach and cries, hugging her. 

“Daddy?” Rachel whispers and her father throws back his wine before walking out of the restaurant, her heart shatters and everything is muffled. “Rach, hey look at me.” Joey says and she does as best as she can through her tears. “Oh Rach,” She hears Joey whisper and feels herself being pulled in for a hug, she cries into his sweater. They don’t end up eating, Rachel feels sick and after her mother reassured her she accepts her Joey takes her back to their building. “I think I’m gonna go shower.” She says at their doors shakily and Joey nods and hugs her again. “I’m here if you need me okay?” He whispers and she nods numbly before entering her apartment. She knows she looks like a wreck, mascara running down her cheeks and rushes into her room, grabs pajamas and rushes into the bathroom. Rachel takes a long shower, most of it spent staring blankly ahead and thinking. When she gets out she finds Monica on the couch watching TV and her heart breaks all over again, she goes to her room and sits on her bed, staring blankly. 

She’s in shock, she realizes. It hasn’t really processed all the way. He didn’t even say anything, he just left. She’s happy about her mom, of course she is but she can’t focus on anything else. Rachel has always loved her father, everyone always called her a daddy’s girl and they were right. He taught her sailing, how to take care of herself and a million more things. He took care of her around the clock when she got her appendix out, wouldn’t let the nannies. He held her at night when she had bad dreams. But now, now she might have lost him forever. Rachel takes a shaky breath and comes back to reality, out of her mind and realizes there’s wet tracks on her cheeks, she wipes them away. After pulling on a sweatshirt and socks she leaves the apartment and goes across the hall to Joey’s and Chandlers. Chandler isn’t home, thank god, and she finds Joey watching something on TV. “Joey,” she starts and her voice breaks. Joey gets up with concern on his face and walks to her. “He just left.” Rachel whispers shakily. “He didn’t even say anything Joey,” He pulls her into a hug and she cries into his chest. Joey lets them sink to the floor and just hugs her until she calms down.

They end up on the couch watching disney movies to try to help Rachel feel better. She ends up falling asleep hugging him, he figures she needs him as a security blanket of sorts and just gets comfortable, pulling a blanket over the two of them. Half an hour later Chandler gets home from, whatever he does when he isn’t home and gives Joey a questioning look. “She had a big fight with her Dad, needed comfort ya know.” Joey whispers and Chandler nods before getting a bottle of water. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re a really good friend Joe?” Chandler asks before he closes his door, as he flicks the switch off for the living room and Joey chuckles. “Night Chan.”  _I love you._ He doesn’t say and Chandler closes his door. 

Dinner the next night with Joeys family goes much better than with her own. First of all, they actually eat. Secondly his entire family swarms him with a huge hug full of tears and love. Thirdly his sister is also a lesbian, and hot as shit. Her name is cookie, that night she wears a leather jacket, red jeans and a black band shirt, Rachel has a hard time focusing when she talks. They immediately hit it off and become friends, the Tribbianis love Rachel and tell her to make sure she comes to visit again. “They went incredibly well.” Joey remarks on their walk home and Rachel hums, adjusting the lasagna she’s carrying. “So, I saw you and Cookie giving eachother eyes.” She nearly drops the lasagna and Joey just chuckles and takes it from her. “Just do me a favor Rach, wait till you’re ready for a relationship with a girl to go for her. I can help you find girls for flings, I know this great gay bar.” Rachel nods and smiles at the thought of one day having a relationship with a girl. 

. . . . . 

Okay so, she came out to her parents, check. She still has the rest of her family, excluding her sisters who her mom told after asking her if she could, and her friends minus Joey. The rest of her family will find out eventually but her friends, the ones she wants to go to for advice about her love life should hear it from her. So one night she asks them to stay past closing at Central Perk and they do. “Okay guys,” She starts and Joey gives her a sneaky thumbs up. “I um- I’m gay. That’s why I couldn’t marry Barry.” She says and Monica is the first to move. Before she can really register it Monica pulls her into a tight hug, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe joining around them. Ross sits on the couch moping and she ignores him, if he wants to be a dick let him. 

“Raaaccchhh cmon! The bars gonna fill up! Don’t you want to meet a pretty girl?” Joey yells outside her bedroom door a few weeks later and she opens the door and rolls her eyes. “Yes I do want to meet a pretty girl. Also what do you think, too slutty? Not slutty enough?” Rachel asks and Joey laughs and steers her out of the apartment. “You look beautiful Rach, they won’t know what hit em. I can see it now, I’ll find a cute guy or girl and you’ll find a cute girl and we’ll get laid. We’ll never get laid if we don’t get going though!” Joey tells her and she laughs and grabs her purse and coat on the way out the door. “Bye Mon!” Rachel yells and Monica yells Bye from the bathroom. She ends up meeting a very, very pretty girl. Her name is Carla, she has hair cut short and is really rocking that whole biker vibe, Rachel is starting to think she has a type. “What do you say we go back to my place?” Carla whispers in her ear and a shiver runs down her spine. Rachel smiles charmingly and kisses her. “Let me go tell my friend I’m leaving and I’ll meet you out front.” She says and Carla nods and pecks her on the lips before heading to the front. 

It doesn’t take her long to find Joey, he’s flirting with a guy named Brad she thinks. “Hi, sorry to interrupt but I’m leaving. I’ll see you tomorrow Joe, thanks for bringing me here.” Rachel says and Joey smiles. “No prob Rach, have fun.” He sends her off and she meets Carla out front. They take a cab back to her apartment, Carla keeps a hand on her thigh the ride there and her entire body feels like it’s on fire. As soon as they’re inside Carla has her pinned to the door and is kissing her passionately, they have a very good night and the neighbors know Carla’s name if they didn’t before. Rachel gets home at eight, needing to get ready for work and forgets about the hickeys littering her neck until later, after her shower, at breakfast when Monica makes a remark that she must have had a good time last night. She just chuckles and tells Monica that yes, she had a very good time. Rachel runs into Brad from last night in the hall, he’s kissing Joey goodbye at the door. “We are so going back to that bar.” Rachel tells Joey after Brad leaves, Joey agrees enthusiastically. 

 That night the gang goes out drinking to celebrating Joey getting the job for his recent audition. Sleepovers are becoming more common for Joey and Rachel, they’re easily best friends. Tonight is no exception, they’re giggly and drunk off their asses chilling on Joey’s couch. “Hey Joe, let me ask you something.” Rachel says quietly and Joey looks at her curiously. “When’d you fall for Chandler?” She whispers and Joey smiles brightly. “I started falling for him a month after moving in. I realized three months in when we were sitting on the floor eating pizza at three am and laughing about nonsense. I looked at him and he had pizza grease on his shirt and his hair ruffled and it just hit me.” Joey looks smitten, that’s the only way to describe it. That boy is in love, there’s no doubt in her mind. 

“You ever fallen for someone?” He asks and Rachel sighs and nods. “Sophomore year.” They sit in silence for a little, the pizza man comes and they sit back down. “It’s Mon.” Her voice cracks and Joey drops his slice into his box. “We’re hopeless.” She whispers and Joey huffs a laugh. “Yeah, look at us. In love with our best friends.” 

. . . . . 


End file.
